[wheelguy]

Lexus currently sells half a dozen models in India priced from Rs 58.2 lakh to Rs 2.32 crore and all of them are imported as CBU.

Mumbai: Having been on the fringes in the highly competitive Indian luxury car space, Toyota Motor Corp-owned luxury car brand Lexus has an assembly line to make vehicles locally with an estimated investment of about $100 million and will compete hard with the German luxury carmakers in India.

The line has already been set up in Bidadi Bengaluru and the company has begun assembly of the ES sedan and it will eventually add NX SUV to the line up, to price its product competitively in India.

The company currently sells half a dozen models in India priced from ₹58.2 lakh to ₹2.32 crore and all of them are imported as completely-built imports, which come with a levy of over 100%, making Lexus models less competitive when compared to the overall market.

With almost all of its rivals having a local assembly line set up, the fullybuilt imports from Lexus were putting the company at a disadvantage due to a steep imports duty.

An email sent to the company by ET did not elicit any official response.

Plus the company has a limited reach with just dealerships or guest experience centres in India i.e. Mumbai, Delhi, Gurgaon and Bengaluru. The company is likely to add Chennai, Hyderabad and a couple more markets to have a bigger geographical footprint.

In a market of 35,000 units, Lexus sold about 500-600 cars in 2019 accounting for a very modest market share of 1-2%.

Sweet news for the prospective Lexus buyers.

Source

[Turbanator]

2 variants for ES will be coming from March. A new basic model which losses few features like the upgraded music system, LED lamps and few other things will be introduced. Expect to be priced at around 52. The regular one which replaces CBU will be priced close to existing perhaps 2-3 lac reduction at most. This is despite lowest GST on full hybrids like these at 43%. I don’t think such small reductions will help them.

[Equus]

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[KL01toKA03]

Originally Posted by wheelguy

Lexus currently sells half a dozen models in India priced from Rs 58.2 lakh to Rs 2.32 crore and all of them are imported as CBU.
Sweet news for the prospective Lexus buyers.

Bad news for the people who had already bought Lexus cars. Resale prices will also go down.

[Iyencar]

Originally Posted by KL01toKA03

Bad news for the people who had already bought Lexus cars. Resale prices will also go down.

Not really. A CBU has it's own attraction and will always command a premium in the used market. This is even more true in the case of the Lexus because of how reverentially the Japanese workers treat the manufacturing process. The wood in the LS for example is known as Shimamoku.

To create it, alternating light and dark wood veneers are layered. Then, they are carefully shaped in a process involving 67 steps over 38 days until the trim is like everything else in a Lexus—as close to perfect as possible.

Link
Then there are the Takumi:

The Takumi are master craftsmen who spend decades honing their craft to achieve unparalleled dexterity and skill. They embrace mindful repetition to cultivate mastery at the highest level. In doing so, crafting becomes intuitive and second nature. It takes 60, 000 hours to become a Takumi

Link
It's a very unique subculture out there and there should be enough people who value it and are willing to pay a premium for the products.

[Sahil]

While this a good move, the ES is going to face cannibalisation from it's cheaper brother the Camry. I just don't enough differentiation to be paying 30% more just for the badge. While I should be the last one talking since we have a Lexus ES in the garage but only coz I had got it at a hefty discount.Although I have been a victim of this, I feel the Camry is much better value at full price than the ES at discounted price.

I hope Lexus put a better engine in the ES, something more powerful than the one in the Camry. This could lure E,5,6GT customers

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by Sahil

While this a good move, the ES is going to face cannibalisation from it's cheaper brother the Camry. I just don't enough differentiation to be paying 30% more just for the badge. While I should be the last one talking since we have a Lexus ES in the garage but only coz I had got it at a hefty discount.Although I have been a victim of this, I feel the Camry is much better value at full price than the ES at discounted price.

I hope Lexus put a better engine in the ES, something more powerful than the one in the Camry. This could lure E,5,6GT customers

Currently the difference is about 25L which to me is little too hard to justify. However if the difference is about 10-12L, I would pick ES over Camry anyday. You get the L badge to brag, nicer interiors and some additional features.

[V.Narayan]

This is quite a surprise. Thus far to best of my knowledge Lexus assembly has been limited to Japan and North America. A good step forward for Lexus lovers.

[wheelguy]

Made in India Lexus ES 300h BS6 launched alongside LC 500h

Lexus India has launched the 2020 BS6-compliant range of the ES 300h sedan and NX 300h crossover, alongside the exclusive LC 500h grand tourer (GT). The Japanese luxury car manufacturer under Toyota also announced its commitment to the Indian market with the introduction of the locally-manufactured version of the Lexus ES 300h (available from February 2020). All prices mentioned below are ex-showroom.

Prices for the Lexus ES 300h start at Rs 51.90 lakh for the base Exquisite trim while the higher Luxury trim costs Rs 56.95 lakh. The ES 300h is powered by a 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine coupled to an electric motor. Put together, the mid-size luxury sedan delivers around 218bhp and 221Nm of torque while mated to a 6-step e-CVT that sends power to the front wheels. It primarily rivals the 2.0-litre petrol avatars of the Audi A6, BMW 5 Series, Mercedes-Benz E-Class and Jaguar XF.

The 2020 version of the bigger Lexus NX 300h crossover is available in three formats: Exquisite (Rs 54.90 lakh), Luxury (Rs 59.90 lakh) and F Sport (Rs 60.60 lakh). The all-wheel-drive NX gets the familiar 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol motor coupled to an electric motor on either axle. Output figures stand at 194bhp and 210Nm. Transmission is the same 6-step e-CVT as in the ES 300h. The NX 300h is a rival to the Audi Q5, BMW X3, Mercedes-Benz GLC, Volvo XC60 and Range Rover Evoque.

Source

[harsha.muvva]

It will be interesting to see how the lexus exquisite (Rs 51.9 L) fares against the new camry hybrid (37.8L). The differnece between on-road will come up to approximately 15 lakhs, which I feel isnt much(in this segment) if there is appreciable difference between the two.

I feel for owners who use the vehicle for more than 20,000 km’s per annum and want to have a luxury vehicle, sticking to camry & lexus makes sense. It will be great if some one who has experienced both camry and ES can share their views here

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by wheelguy

Made in India Lexus ES 300h BS6 launched alongside LC 500h

The pricing isn't bad at all!
The base ES300H is the cheapest (pre-discount) vehicle in it's segment and will be a tempting value proposition undoubtedly. In fact the combination of hybrid + sofa like rear seats should make the base ES the choice for the chauffeur driven who would otherwise buy the discounted A6 / 5 series.

Earlier, the ES was amongst the more expensive options in the segment - at least in states like Maharashtra where CBU's pay higher road tax. The pricing just didn't make sense compared to the likes of the E Class with it's brand value & LWB guise; or the sportier 5 series.

[Turbanator]

There are few Old imports in stocks with dealers in North. These are 2019 models and offered at around 55 lac ex showroom. I was shopping for a known and checked this as well F pace but ultimately ended up picking E Class at same price as Lexus after discounts. Per chance we got Jan 2020 production due to a goof up by sales guy. Although Lexus interiors are nice but these come no where close to E-Class which even without leather is finished equeistlly. I tried reasoning for trouble free ownership or cost of maintenance but the guy didn’t wanted to listen.

Even with local manufacturing, I will be surprised if Lexus is able to achieve any meaningful growth.

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by lamborghini

The pricing isn't bad at all!

I agree. Better than I expected. But keen to see what kit is missing in the base model.

Coincidently our Lexus ES went it for its 2nd annual service today. Cost- 14k inclusive of GST which included filter and oil change etc. Previous service was even cheaper.

[DicKy]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

This is quite a surprise. Thus far to best of my knowledge Lexus assembly has been limited to Japan and North America. A good step forward for Lexus lovers.

True, though the fact is 'proper' Lexus models (no offence to your choice sir ) continue to be made in Japan. Don't think they will ever make or assemble the LS, LX, LC outside Japan.

The mass models ES, RX do have North American assembly. When Lexus initially launched the ES instead of the IS or GS knew for a fact that they were planning for future assembly, which they wouldn't be able to do for the IS or GS. The news about the NX is a surprise, given it's not assembled in North America and is only made in Japan.

Eventhough the new Camry has vastly narrowed down the interior quality/ambience difference, the ES does make a case for itself. But IMHO, they should also launch the IS and GS, given how much superior they are.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by Sahil

I agree. Better than I expected. But keen to see what kit is missing in the base model.

Not much actually, I feel, Lexus has introduced lower variant just to ensure old owners don't feel bad. Won't be surprised if some of the Camry's sales will get converted.

Here are the link to Luxury and Exquisite, missing features

A row of LED on the headlamp, Headup, 360 Camera, Mark Levinson

https://www.lexusindia.co.in/en/mode...specifications

https://www.lexusindia.co.in/en/mode...0h.html#safety